Virginia Delegate-elect Mark Levine (D-Alexandria, Arlington) just posted the following on his Facebook page about the Washington Post article, Armed activists in Oregon touch off unpredictable chapter in land-use feud. I couldn’t agree more with what Mark Levine has to say here. I’d just add that if this were a bunch of heavily-armed African American or Muslim men taking over a federal building, they’d probably be dead by now; the right wing would be going nuts; the media would be in overdrive calling them “terrorists;” etc. Yet in this case, 2016 Republican presidential candidates are silent, Fox et al are calling these people “protestors,” etc. A wild, stark, highly-revealing contrast. And yeah, anyone who doesn’t understand that is utterly (and/or willfully) oblivious to the way things actually work in this country.
And this is why those people who make claims that we all have “an individual right under the Second Amendment to own guns outside a well regulated militia” for the ridiculous reason that we must defend against a Hitlerian Federal Government that would “snatch our guns away” are playing with fire.
Their horrific rhetoric encourages American terrorists to attack.And no, their guns will not defeat the People of the United States or its duly elected Federal Government. We should cordon off the area, put these terrorists under siege, and allow no food or people in (unless they have hostages, in which case we have trained people to deal with this). We should allow them all to come out, with their hands up. And then arrest each and every one of them and treat them no differently than we would if armed ISIS terrorists had occupied a US Federal Building.
If they are holding people there against their will or fire at our officers, prepare the best snipers we have. Seal Team Six, if necessary. If not, we can be patient, but our tanks — and their hunger — will eventually defeat their guns. These terrorists will not do to us what Russia did to Ukraine.
This is not a peaceful protest. This is not a sit in. This is not the equivalent of the Occupy Movement (people who were never armed and never resisted arrest).
This is people defying the will of a democratically elected Government and seeking to overthrow it. There is one and only one way to overthrow the Government of the United States: free and fair elections.
This is consistent with the vision of our Founders. Recall that President George Washington personally put down the armed Whiskey Rebellion when a group of armed farmers sought to defy a duly enacted tax. It’s also why President Washington would have NEVER agreed that individuals have a right to bear arms in order to challenge their duly-elected government with force of arms. The Second Amendment is supposed to allow you to serve your duly-elected government in a well regulated militia, not to allow you to oppose your duly-elected government with an armed insurrection.
President Lincoln was right about this too. Recall that the largest armed insurrection against the Federal Government in American history was brutally put down. Hundreds of thousands of Americans died in the U.S. Civil War. And yes, it was the right thing to do. The Union was right.
These terrorists will not win. They cannot win. They cannot be allowed to win. To allow them to win is to end the rule of law in our Republic.
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